The long journey of my everyday bentos

New blog!

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:01:15 GMT

I'm really sorry, I wasn't able to come and post all my bentos here. I've changed my blog adress. If you are interested to follow me folow this link for all my vegetarian meals and if you are only interested in bentos just follow this one!
Hope to see you there!

Hey, and by the way, I've decided to offer a french translation of my posts...maybe you'd be interested.

Bear's today's bento, vegan chocolate cupcakes

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:05:04 GMT

Bento content
-Kiwi 2
-Apple quarter
-Vegan chocolate muffin
-Onigri with nutritional yeast
-Cabbage yoghurt
-Celery salad and vinaigrette
-Carrot sticks

The sun is out, shining right through our windows. It is the best moment of the year to have a bento for lunch. The best thing is that we can now just walk a little and sit under the shade of a tree in Lacienki park. Yes, I have the chance to work nearby. I believe that every Warsaw inhabitant is proud of this famous park. They can be! It's a real joy to sit under a tree on a bench and forget for one hour the stress and the work enjoying my lunch.
Bear doesn't have the same chance, but as he is mostly on the road lately he happens to eat his bentos in much fancier places than I do: Augustow, Kielce, Wroclaw, Krakow, Zakopane,...

Todd in a pot

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:04:08 GMT

Bento content
-Vegetarian pesto tod in a pot
-Cabbage salad with yoghurt
-Lettuce
-Raw cauliflower, carrot sticks,
-Sandwich with vegetarian pâté and brown seedy bread (only Bf)
-Little seitan crackers thick like dried meat, but much tastier!
-Quinoa with lens (soya sauce)

I am jaleous. Yes, I believe this was the feeling I had when viewing the nice tod in pots in bentos lately.
I just wanted to have some in my bento too! But a vegetarian tasty version. What I remember from the meaty version is quite heavy to digest. I wanted a light and spicy version. Result: Bear is totally fond of them. And they were great even cold in our lunch bento.
I didn't have much time this evening and not much in the fridge either. So I completed this bento with a simple seedy brown sandwich which is maybe this seed gratin Cicerolle was speaking of :). I redid some of these little seitan crakers that I had to bread with nuts and walnut as I had finished most of my dried okara. You should definitely taste them!
With some fresh carrot sticks and cauliflower trees to complete the bento, I was rewarded with a great hug for this lunch!

Courgette cupcakes, banana-coco vegan cupcake

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:03:22 GMT

Bento content
-Sandwich (spinach, vegetarian pâté, cucumber)
-Courgette cupcake (vegan, bread based)
-Banana-coco cupcake (vegan) or sweet courgette cupcakes
-Mandarin slices
-Kiwi slices
-Carrot salad
-Vegan tsatsiki
-Japanese style vinaigrette

I just can't read. I mean at least a recipe! I was catching up some recipes in Oceane's blog when I fell on this cupcake recipe with Tastsiki. The recipe seemed tempting and the idea of having it for a bento was just great. So here I go straight to the shop to get what I was missing in my fridge. I don't know how in my twisted mind I thought I needed courgette to do her cupcakes. Please don't ask. I felt so stupid back home in front of my computer, ready to try her recipe...and seeing that my memories of the ingredients were really fantaisist! And I had promised Bear some fantastic courgette cupcakes...So this is how I ended up with some courgette cupcakes with Tsatsiki. A good bento item, it was a real joy to gobble up my lunch today! And, because I really bought too much courgette I did some sweet courgette cupcakes for desert. Can you see any difference between the two?
The other bento has banana-coco flavoured cupcakes.

Sandwich can be vegetarian

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:02:04 GMT

Bento content
-Falafel
-Lettuce
-Cabbage yoghurt salad
-Sandwich 1: vegan pâté [base mung beans], cheese, lettuce, mayonnaise
-Sandwich 2: aubergine caviar, seitan breaded with okara and miso spices, lettuce.

As usual, I'm in a hurry, trying to get everything done and still to eat properly so I went for sandwiches today. I saw on a few forums that people don't imagine sandwiches to be vegetarian.
I think this is truly amazing! Hey wake up guys, there are thousands of incredible variations of vegetarian/vegan pâtés. This decided me to show you this really simple but tasty bento. Maybe sandwiches would be a little more vegetarian among non-vegetarian eaters! ;)
(The box is my little Totoro box which got damaged during my last trip. It's last time, before ending in the museum of broken bento boxes...I hate these low cost flights!).

Banana coco jelly, thin okara and miso breaded seitan

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:01:11 GMT

Bento content
-Sesame cookies
-Banana and coco jelly (lemon for the colour)
-Humous
-Cauliflower and carrot sticks
-Onigri
-Thin seitan slices breaded with okara and miso
-Kiwi slices
-Lettuce

So happy, I'm back cooking again on a daily basis. Bear is too! This bento is full of little things I missed these last days: homemade cookies, jelly, houmous, rice and raw vegetables and fruits.
It's stupid but humus isn't something common in France. I mean you cannot go in any shop and find can of houmous. Unfortunatly. And jelly is just unavailable and I tend to avoid mousses because of gelatine.
So back at home, with very little time and just blended a banana and add coco flakes a little lemon to prevent the banana to turn brown and agar-agar. And here you are!
As I told you yesterday, I wanted a to add a little more flavour to my ham. How? Well, I played with the breading. As usual I headed towards my okara box better than bread crumbs and looked for miso and spices! The result was really great!
And today's treat were these little cookies mostly made out of sesame and maple syrup.

An attempt to seitan ham

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:00:05 GMT

Bento content
-Chocolate and coffee cupcake
-Carrot salad
-Onigri breaded with nutritional yeast
-Seitan ham flavoured mushroom
-Lettuce

Four weeks on the road, living in planes, trains and hotels looking for a job. I truly missed you and my kitchen! What can I say? The moment my suitcases landed on the floor of my flat, kissed bear hello, I was in the kitchen all pans out and ready to prepare our monday bento.
During these four weeks away with very little internet connection, I had a lot of time to think about vegan "ham" making with gluten. I had several a goes but I still want to think over the flavouring but it's quite promissing. I'm not so happy about the texture though. Wait for tomorow to see what one can do with this ham!

Quickly done after my trip from France

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:59:02 GMT

Bento content
-Vegetable stir flavoured with Hoisin sauce
-Carrot salad
-Lettuce
-Onigri with nutritional yeast

My flight landed at 18:31. I was home at something like 8 o'clock. Bear had prepared me some vegetable stir with Hoisin sauce. The next day, I had to be at work with a bento for lunch and I was tired from my journey. So this bento was quickly prepared. I had brought back some organic yeast with which I breaded my onigris made of good quality rice. A real relief to eat good rice again. I just added some grated carrot, lettuce and some of leftovers of the vegetable stir. I have to agree that this Hoisin sauce makes vegetable stir tasty even cold.
But, geez, I've just landed, and I'm flying back again...sorry for low posting lately but I'm not near a kitchen lately, nor a computer!

Lemon jelly and potato and chick-pea roesti

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:28:09 GMT

Bento
-Lemon jelly
-Potato roesti
-Lettuce
-Carrot sliced cooked and carrot salad
-Cabbage yoghurt salad

I believe you have understood that lately, I'm stressed out, and that I have really few time to prepare meal or our bento lunches. So yesterday evening I quickly prepare some lemon jelly with agar-agar. It takes something like 3 minutes to prepare and then, I just have to let it set in the fridge.
It's the same with these potato and chick-pea roesti. Quickly made and so tasty cold thanks to the garlic.
The cooked carrot slices were just some leftovers and so was the cabbage salad.
This bento asked for less than 10 minutes to put together and was really tasty.

Tea break, one year of cooking with you

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:26:40 GMT

Thank you!
I was a little too busy lately to realise that it has been one year since I've decided to post my first bento. One year since I had the courage to speak out my recipes, one year since I decided to let you in in my kitchen, one year since I 'm sharing my meals with you, one year more shared with Bear
...
one year I've spent with you. I would like to thank you for all your comments , for your nice notes which kept me going , for your inspiring bentos and meals, your amazing photos or for your answers in forums or by mail, for your strong belief in vegetarianism and for your cooking skills that amazes me, for your creative recipes. I am grateful for making me smile while reading your daily post , making me dream or by surprising me when I realise that your blogs links to mine. I just cannot forget your comments on my photostream, for being inspired or asking me questions or just cheering me up with nice comments .
I have also to thank you for testing my recipes and for taking the time to give me some feed back or just for following me and for checking my updates.
I would also like to thank all the silent readers who give me the power to steal time on my sleep to find a little time to post in my so full life.
Thank you!

Statistics:
153 posts,
214 recipes.

Because sandwich can be vegetarian!

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:02:10 GMT

Thank you!
Bento
-Okara breaded broccoli
-Cucumber
-Carrot salad
-French vinaigrette
-Vegan lemon and kiwi pie
-Sandwich made of vegan pâté (black beans), spinach leaves, lettuce, cucumber, cheese.

As I told you I running all the time, I need to go quick. And as you know I still wanted to bake this vegan tort for our job meeting. Still, I had to prepare a bento and well, at some time, go to bed! So I quickly assembled this bento with breaded broccoli for the crunchy taste, raw vegetables for the fresh taste, this little vegan pie because I couldn't present a pie that I hadn't tasted before, and to complete a vegetarian sandwich. Yes sandwiches can be vegetarian! This one is filled with creamy cheese, vegan pâté (black beans), spinach leaves, lettuce, cucumber.

Onigri with miso and okara breading, soya cotelette: stop buying commercial mix!

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:50:00 GMT

Bento content
-Onigri with miso and okara breading
-Cabbage salad topped with prickles of turnip leaves and nuts
-Carrot slices
-One homemade and one bought spicy soya cotelette
-Cucumber pickled (sliced)
-Corn and olive salad

I love rice. I just cannot live without. So this time I made little onigris that I dipped in some miso thick paste and breaded with okara. You know my left-overs from milk soya making. As usual, you can just replace it by breadcumbs...Bear is addicted to these onigri now...geez he'll eat all my good rice...damn!Should hide it...
I redid some of this seasoning with turnip leaves this time and it was just as great as the one made with kohlrabi leaves.
Did you ever try soya cotelette? I like them quite a lot, and my favourite are the spicy ones.
I even bought a pack of this weird powder, where you have to add water form it in a ball and then heat them...Yes, I did...But, then, (you all know me) I had to try to do some myself! So I gave it a shot, and to be honest, I put in each bento one homemade one and one bought one so we could compare.
Result: I think that mines have a little less chewy texture in comparison to the bought ones. Bear told me I was mad, he preferred mines as they were more spicy and he thought the texture was exactly the same.
Whatever, the conclusion is that we are not buying it anymore and that I'll make some.
You're thinking it'll use me up more time? No, no, it's just as quick as taking out this pack and putting water in it. Yes, it's blended dried okara, potato starch and some spices...here you go!

Bento quickly made in the evening

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:49:09 GMT

Bento content
-Spinach and goat cheese pie
-French vinaigrette
-Lentils and coral lentils with soya sauce
-Cabbage salad (yoghurt and mayonnaise)
-Carrot salad
-Corn and olive salad

So, I'm in a real hurry lately. Very few time, for you, for me, for anything to say the truth. I'm running, running, running. So I had to quickly make a bento for tomorrow's lunch as it is bento or starve choice option...
So quickly this evening, with the rest of flaky pastry from the onion pie, I made some little spinach and goat cheese pies. (yes, we treated ourselves with goat cheese).
I added the rest of our lentils and red lentils we had on the evening. They were cooked with 2 tbsp of black soya sauce. So we didn't have to add a vinaigrette to highlight them. I prefer them just a littly crunchy for a bento salad so it's a good idea to cook the both types of lentils together as the coral lentils are cooked before the brown lentils. It'll give a crunchy and soft texture.
Then, I just added some salads and corn and olive salad for the starch.

This bento was really quickly assembled, but was tasty!

Greek pita bento to assemble

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:37:15 GMT

Bento
-Homemade pita breads
-Falafels
-Grated carrots, cucumber, celery, turnip
-Sliced cabbage and red cabbage
-White sauce
-Humus flavoured with olives
-Dried dates, chocolate.

Sometimes Bear complains that sandwichs are good too. So to charm him and prove him that healthy bentos and sandwiches are not incompatibles I came up with
vegetarian pitas with falafels.

The idea is to prepare the pitas just before eating. The pita are precut and we just had to spread a little nut of humus, then the vegetables, the falafels and top with the white sauce.

Bear shared his bento with a colleague on the way to Wroclaw...one more addicted, one more poor wife which has to start bentoing (yes, here female/male roles seems still to be really settled...[hard for a feminist like me ;)] ).
And Bear is begging me to make him this bentos again and again...Pffiou!

Red naturally coloured red rice

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:13:07 GMT

Bento:
-Red beetroot risotto vegetarian sushis
-Carrot salad, celery salad
-Light pea salad with mayonnaise
-Tempura of cauliflower and broccoli
-Cucumber sticks
-Cherry of French vinaigrette

So in my search of naturally colouring, I was looking for red colouring. And so, I came with a beetroot risotto. Bear was totally charmed by this combination thanks to the little sweet and sour taste due to the additional vinegar. And this sushi version was incredibly great too.
The pea with mayonnaise is one of Bisounours_51's favourite. But, I have to agree that I cannot agree to put so much of mayonnaise so I just add yoghurt to mayonnaise and some potato starch to thicken it.

And the last item which was the king of this bento is these tempura cauliflower and broccoli sticks. The tempura paste is flavoured with miso and soya sauce, and breaded with okara. Yes, okara is the rest of grounded soya crumbs which are left-overs from soya milk. To store them if I don't use them in veggie burgers, I dry them. They are a very good item to change from breadcrumbs. Lighter and crispier how could one resist?

This bento was a true relief and a real pleasure. And as I didn't manage to choose, you'll have our both bentos!

Mushroom pie

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:11:50 GMT

Bento content
-Mushroom pudding
-Mushroom pie
-Tapenade
-Vegetable stir
-Beetroot square salad
-Humus (olive flavoured)
-French vinaigrette
-Olive polenta crackers
-Date flapjack
-Mandarin

This bento is full of left-overs of yesterday evening (night?).

I know it's not the most appealing photo to sell you my mushroom pie recipe...I had too much of the mushroom stuffing for the pudding. So with a little bit of potato starch and some help (Bear did the pastry) I quickly prepared some pie.
Okay..I'll take out the "I made the pie"..."we" would be more appropriate!

And as you see, this is the last bento of the week: no more fresh vegetables left in my fridge! Can't wait to be tomorrow: market shopping day! Yeeh!

It continues...

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:10:39 GMT

Bento content
-Coffee cupcake
-Polenta olive crakers
-Humus olive pâté, tapenade
-Sauerkraut with pickles
-Falafel, cauliflower crakers
-Pea and mint pie
-Cucumber (only me).

The only way, I manage to prepare bentos everyday is by preparing on week-ends a few recipes. As I have no freezer, my bentos will be quite similar. I'll just add a few items to spice a little bit my lunches. Each of them, will be really quick to prepare and easy enough to be made on tired evenings when the only thing that crosses your mind is: when can I go to bed?

Today, I added some little polenta olive carkers, and some pea and mint pies. The mint pea pies were just a wonder, even cold! A good bento item.

Not so creative lately...

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:51:13 GMT

Bento content
-Falafel
-Humus
-Leek and apple salad
-Soba coloured in violet (with red cabbage)
-Tofu dumplings
-Boiled red cabbage
-Corn, carrot salad
-Cauliflower tempura

Well, well...this is true life. And I'm sure that most of you sometimes think that my bento are really too long to prepare, that I'm crazy and I'm locked in my kitchen.
So I want to be true with you : I have no freezer, I have few time, so well, this bento is similar to the day before, and the one before...Only cauliflower crakers were quickly made yesterday evening. Then, I boiled some red cabbage and boil the pasta in this water to obtain a light violet colour which is nearly invisible.

And you, do you have any tip to speed up bento making without freezer, canned, or bought food? Not, that I complain...I love homemade food!

Originally published here.

And I'm living in...

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:48:34 GMT

Bento content
-Falafels
-Rolls of tortillas with tapenade
-Cauliflower trees
-Radish and carrot pickle
-Tofu dumplings
-Date flapjack
-Naturally brown coloured rice
-Cheese and nori snowman and snowflakes.

...such a snowy and wintery place. Yes, it's still snowing here. Our sunny Sunday made me hope again that these little sunshine ray were a sign of Spring...Nevermind, this little bento is to recall me that North pole is not so far... :)
The only new item is the brown coloured rice which is coloured and flavoured wih soya sauce. So this is one more to add to the homemade natural food colouring overview.

Originally published here

Happy Valentine

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:47:30 GMT

Dinner
-Home made puffed pastry stuffed with sauerkraut and mushrooms
-Verrine of salads: spinach, celery, carrot, turnip, red cabbage, grated apple,
white cabbage, yoghurt, apple slice.

The recipes will have to wait a little. I have really few time but I wanted to wish you a happy valentine to all of you, and thank you for visiting :).

Originally published here.

Hi I'm May!

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:45:20 GMT

Bento content
-Falafels
-Rolls of tortillas with tapenade
-Cauliflower trees
-Radish and carrot pickle
-Tofu dumplings
-Polish leek and apple salad
-Date flapjack
-Rice
-Cheese face and hand, nori eyes, hair and smile, carrot sharp cheeks and pearl, red cabbage jumper.

Lately I'm in a creative mood. I had all my pencils out and I wanted to create a little character. And this is how I came out with May. So does she seduces you? Although this bento is a bit fancy by the drawing, I try as usual to have a healthy bento. So you'll find here a Lebanese element with falafels which are fried dumplings made of pulses (chick peas and fava beans), a Mediterranean element with tapenade (a olive spread), a Polish element with the leek salad, a British element with flapjacks stuffed with dates, a Japanese element with the tofu dumplings and something from South America with tortillas.
International, isn't it?

The tofu dumplings are made with the silken tofu I'm used to make, but I just pressed it a little and let it drain a little longer to have something a little more firm. It's coated with a spicy Japanese sauce. They are really great!

This bento was really tasty. You should try mixing elements from different countries, it's so amazing!

Originally published here

End of week bento:

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 07:47:48 GMT

Bento
-Cabbage tempura patties
-Nuggets of spicy white beans
-Onigri rice sandwich with olive vegetarian pâté and nori
-Carrot and radish salad with French vinaigrette
-Boiled carrot slices and broccoli trees flavoured with stock
-Half a muffin of lentils and walnut cake
-Kiwi.

It's the end of the week and happily there's very few in the fridge.Happily? Yes, an empty fridge at the end of the week means a good week planning and
no waste. But, it's a real challenge to put together a bento. Being in Poland and in winter we mostly rely on cabbage, and I have to use cunning to come out with another recipe to prepare them in order not to get bored. This time I came up with some little patties flavoured with miso.
I also prepared some little nugget balls of white beans that I spiced up with chilli pepper and thyme!
I know that this photo is not the best way to advertise the vegetarian pâté I made up. But, I was so happy with the taste of the one I had been offered for Christmas that I wanted to have a go and do some my own. The base is humus that I flavoured with olives and paprika. This was a really good experiment! I made some more for this week-end sandwiches with fresh veggies from the market!

I'm ill...so little cooking this week.

Boys are born in cabbages, natural homemade food colouring

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:19:48 GMT

Bento content
-Blue naturally coloured rice
-Lighter version of the beetroot cupcake
-Lentils and nut cupcake
-Carrot sticks flavoured with ginger and anis
-Broccoli flavoured with ginger, anis, and chilli pepper
-Carrot and celery pickle
-Red cabbage polish salad with walnuts
-Mushrooms and cucumber slices
-Green cabbage leave flavoured with ginger, chilli pepper and anis.

This my yesterday bento with the blue naturally coloured rice. Conclusion it is really tasty and it has been approved by Bear. I tried to present a little baby boy wrapped in a cabbage leaf. A French joke, I believe.

It came to my mind that you might be interested to have a overview of different natural colouring I have blogged. (the link on the colour refers to the post I featured this rice coloring, the link on the vegetables refers to the recipe).

Red: Cherry, Beetroot (the recipe will be updated next week).
Pink: Beetroot.
Yellow: Curcuma.
Bright yellow, light orange: saffron.
Orange: Carrot.
Purple: Blueberry.
Blue: Red cabbage with raising powder.
Green: Green cabbage, courgette.
Brown: soya sauce (recipe and post, next week).

Sweet pink: Cherry jam.

I mostly used them here to dye rice, but you can dye eggs, cakes, icing sugar.
Dying eggs can also be done using tea or onions.

*Updated: blue coloured rice recipe, light version of the beetroot cupcakes.*

A poor attempt for San Francisco Golden Bridge

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:17:26 GMT

Colourful bento

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:29:48 GMT

Bento content
-Seitan crakers
-Quinoa topped with kohlrabi leaves and nuts sprinkles
-Broccoli and Brussels sprouts flavoured with ginger, chilli pepper and stock
-Apple and pear nutty crumble
-Aubergine's caviar, carrot and radish pickles
-BF's eternal cheese sandwich
-Quick soup

After swimming I had to pack really quickly up a bento for the next day. I had some seitan left, I decided to prepare them as little miso flavoured fritters. This was really a good idea. Even cold they are really tasty and not too greasy as I cannot truly fry them (none of my pans are deep enough). The apple and pear crumble was the result of this 6 o'clock cooking frenzy. And it's a good way to make BF eat fruits. (I still didn't find enough tricks to make him eat fruits except juices, smoothies and cakes...any idea?) What's more? Ah..aubergine caviar. This is a very good dip which deserves it's name. One aubergine gives really little caviar...but so tasty! And last but not least, I added a little round tup in which I poured boiling water to make it in a soup. This one is a mix of miso, kohlrabi and nut sprinkle and dried tomato strips. Well, that was really tasty! I'll make some soup every lunch now! Having a hot dish on this cold days was really a joy.